A question I received: Please make a list of all the 613 desires that exist in a person, one by one.

My Answer: Just like that, you’d like me to describe all 613 desires in detail? But what for? Not a single one of them exists in you yet! They are revealed in a person after he crosses the Machsom, during his spiritual ascent. These are one’s desires to feel pleasure from the Creator, as it is written, “Taste and see how good the Creator is.”

By revealing the Creator, you begin to feel Him as 613 pleasures or delights. First you feel them in the intention to enjoy Him for your own sake (ABYA of the Klipot), and then you correct these to the intention of “for His sake.” Our language does not enable us to express or describe these desires, because we don’t have them.

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Two questions I received on work with spiritual descents:

Question: Sometimes I get this horrible feeling that everything I have in this life (my job, family, health, the world I live in) is about to collapse, and this feeling changes my outlook on life. How do we use such states?

My Answer: You should begin to understand that the birth of a new state occurs only through this path of “descents and ascents.”

Question: What is the meaning of “falling in order to rise”? If a person suddenly starts doing things he would never have done before, is this a descent?

My Answer: If this person studied Kabbalah in his free time, then this is a case of an increased egoism. It is written, “If one is higher than others, his egoism is greater than theirs.” This is talking about “falling in order to rise.” This is the correct process of revealing our nature! The benefit of this is that one needs an enormous desire in order to attain the Creator, and this is how such a desire gets created. This period will pass and be followed by a spiritual ascent. It will then be replaced by another descent, and so on – all the way until the full correction, the highest degree.

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A question I received: You used to say that Kabbalah is only for those who want to listen and study, for those who aspire to reveal the Creator. But now you say that everyone has to hear about it, even if they don’t aspire to the same thing. Why this change of opinion? Do you think that because of the global financial crisis, we now have to involve even those who couldn’t care less about Kabbalah, or about anything at all but their earthly, egoistic desires?

My Answer: I don’t think anything myself. This is what Baal HaSulam wrote, and I am just following his instructions as much as possible. I am certain that only this knowledge can benefit the world. And if someone disagrees, I don’t take their opinion into consideration! How can I consider the opinions of people who can’t see beyond their egoism, don’t understand the world’s governance, and don’t feel the Creator and His actions? If you have the remedy for a dying patient, how can you just stand by and not hand it to him?

In your opinion, who should people listen to if not the Kabbalists? The global nature of the crisis indicates that everyone must know about the reason for their suffering. This is exactly why Kabbalah is now being revealed. See the articles “Time to Act,” “Messiah’s Horn,” and others.

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A question I received: I wanted to talk to you or your assistants about certain special abilities people have, such as the ability to penetrate into the world’s secrets with the help of a Guardian Angel. I would very much appreciate it if you counsel me as to what to do next! For a long time now I haven’t had the courage to take this matter further.

My Answer: I receive many questions similar to yours, but I always delete them without answering. I’ve decided to answer your question as an example to all the others. I don’t discuss anything unrelated to Kabbalah, and I don’t argue about who’s right and who’s wrong. I also don’t try to persuade anyone that I’m the only one with the truth.

It is your right – and an obligation given to you by the Creator – to search for and select your own path, truth, faith and goal in life. I only answer questions about Kabbalah, because seeing as Kabbalah is by definition the method of revealing the Creator to man, it includes everything else, provided that those things exist!

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Two questions I received on humiliation and humility:

Question: Baal HaSulam writes in the book Shamati, in article #27, “What Is, The Lord Is High And The Low Will See,” that if a person annuls his “I,” he sees the Creator! What is this feeling of shame and humiliation that is being spoken of here? Why does the world humiliate and degrade him?

My Answer: A person who corrects himself constantly receives new, additional portions of egoism so that by correcting them he can rise even higher. This is how he rises through all 125 degrees until reaching the full correction.

In order to help a person overcome the new egoism that is constantly being revealed in him, the Creator sends him the disdain of the society. Otherwise a person would hear praise from the society and “sell himself” for it. He would begin to enjoy the honor and glory of being a “righteous man,” since he still doesn’t have the protection of the next portion of egoism that will be revealed.

Question: It is written that the Creator loved Moses for his humility. I see that different trials in life make us more humble. You recommend for us to see our friends as being greater than us. What does it mean to be humble? When we nullify ourselves, how do we avoid making the same mistake as the followers of the Eastern teachings make?

My Answer: The humility does not come from “killing the flesh” or self-destruction, but from:

1. Realizing that you cannot go through correction on your own, but you aspire to this and desire the Upper Light to correct you. A person cannot correct anything about him on his own! Otherwise, instead of being humble, he will feel proud of his humility!

2. Humility emerges as a result of revealing the Creator’s greatness. One who does not reveal the Creator by studying Kabbalah, does not attain humility and is sure to be full of empty pride.

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Two questions I received on people who want to harm us:

Question: What is your interpretation of praying for your enemies? Our Rabbi put in two words at the end of our service, “and Ishmael,” and I was extremely upset. Is this part of “love your fellowmen as yourself”? And how can I pray for someone who has vowed our destruction?

My Answer: You should pray for them to stop wishing to conquer or destroy everyone who is “wrong,” because the infinite and eternal Upper World isn’t attained through violence, but through love for everyone.

Question: You said in a previous blog post that “Any person can harm your spiritual path with his thoughts and desires, even unintentionally.” Does that mean only among the points in the hearts in the spiritual world? Or are we talking in the world of “beasts,” in the corporeal world as well?

My Answer: There is one world, but in our consciousness it divides into the part that’s revealed to us and the part that’s concealed from us. We influence both parts as one whole.

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A question I received: What is the connection between the mind and the heart? Should a person keep them in balance with each other? And how is it possible to increase or decrease one of them? In one of the lessons you said that a person whose mind isn’t developed can go crazy. Can you explain this in more detail?

My Answer: The basis for everything, the only creation – is desire. Hence, the desire is primary in us. But in order to attain what we desire, the mind develops alongside the desire, corresponding to it. Hence, no matter how much we may resist this fact, the mind is a servant of the desire; it develops only in order to service the desire.

Therefore we will never be able to make our minds objective, independent of our desires. However, we can change our desires under the influence of the environment (see the article “The Freedom”), and according to the new desires we will also force our minds to change. If we understand this, then under the influence of the right environment (an environment that leads us to the goal of creation), we can always develop both our desires and our mind harmoniously.

If a person has great desires but his mind isn’t developed enough to actualize them, he may lose the ability to control himself sensibly.

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Questions I received on ghosts, death and reincarnation:

Question: Why must correction happen over numerous lifetimes instead of in one extended lifetime? Is there a spiritual necessity for corporeal death? Would people avoid correction if it meant an extended corporeal existence, thus granting egoism the victory?

My Answer: The body goes through renewal because its inner qualities are renewed. These qualities cannot go through the change while in the same body, since a particular body is always the most suitable for realizing a particular set of qualities.

Question: Will the soul of a deceased person return to this world regardless of whether this person studied Kabbalah?

My Answer: If the person didn’t study Kabbalah, he will definitely return to this world in order to correct his soul with the help of studying Kabbalah. It is only after the soul’s complete correction that a person doesn’t return to this world, which is the worst of all worlds. For more on this, see the “Introduction to the Book ‘From the Mouth of a Sage.'”

Question: When there’s a physical death, the Light departs from the will to receive, and if that person hasn’t developed a soul, then he has no soul to live in the spiritual world. Consequently, the will to receive is once again clothed into another corporeal body – this is called reincarnation. But what are ghosts: creatures that don’t have a corporeal body but they can be photographed or captured on film?

My Answer: They are no more than physical (optical) phenomena that only seem to appear to you!

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Questions I received on interpreting Kabbalistic terms and phrases:

Question: What is Shechina?

My Answer: It is the desire to reveal the Creator, and if the desire is whole, then the Creator becomes revealed inside it. The Creator is called Shochen – one who fills this desire.

Question: What is the recognition of evil?

My Answer: It’s when you get to know you own egoism!

Question: Is suffering the same as falling behind in realizing the Reshimo?

My Answer: Yes!

Question: Can we envision humanity’s path of development as a ready-made, paved route from the point of “Adam” to the point of “the Creator”?

My Answer: That is absolutely correct!

Question: How are we to understand this verse: “Rabbi Shimon said: ‘Kill the best of the Egyptians, and split the head of the best snake’”?

My Answer: Egypt and the snake are your egoism.

Question: What is the Kabblistic meaning of the verse, “You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk”?

My Answer: Don’t mix the developing egoism (the young goat) with bestowal (the quality of Bina, milk). If you do, not only will you fail to correct egoism, but you’ll make the egoism even bigger due to the quality of bestowal (Bina): you will get “bestowal for the sake of reception” instead of “reception for the sake of bestowal.”

Question: Can we say that the inanimate matter, plants, and animals are angels? They are like angels (spiritual forces that influence us) because they have no freedom of will.

My Answer: That’s right!

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Questions I received on the recognition of evil and the study of Kabbalah:

Question: What are we supposed to do after we go through the recognition of evil?

My Answer: If you have recognized the evil within you, then you will hate it so much that you’ll direct all your energy to eradicating it out of you. This is what you have to do. However, if you still haven’t reached the recognition that egoism is evil, if you’re still able to keep on living with it, then you’ll come to me asking me what to do…

Question: What should I do if along with my great desire for spirituality, I’m afraid to lose the few good things that I still have in this life?

My Answer: If you still think that there’s something good about the present state, then you still haven’t reached the recognition of evil.

Question: I understand that we all must unite in a common aspiration for the Creator. But how does one avoid becoming a zombie?

My Answer: You should study the materials and instructions written by Kabbalists. Follow them, evoke the influence of the Upper Light upon you – and It will change you in whatever way is necessary.

The Light acts by revealing and concealing Itself. This is how It develops a person, making him free. As a result, It makes him Human – comprised of the entire created desire and all its filling. The Light is called the Light of Hochma – the Light of Wisdom.

Zombies are all the people without free will – those who are in this world, before entering the Upper World. That’s because they have only one, egoistic nature of reception. For more on this, see Baal HaSulam’s article “The Freedom.”

Question: Is it possible for a person to be restricted from above so he is prevented from studying the Science of Kabbalah because it still isn’t his time to reach the full correction, regardless of his efforts and desire to study?

My Answer: There are no restrictions from above for anyone! You mistakenly see the obstacles intended to develop your desire, as being restrictions. Concealment, partial concealment, and the Creator’s “flirtation” with a person all serve to develop his aspiration to the goal.

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